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Freire wins sunny sprint finish

The pack passes fields of lavender during the 14th stage of the Tour de France between Nimes and Digne-les-Bains, France, on Saturday. PHOTO: AP

LE TOUR FRANCE: The Tour de France has already had a mountain of troubles with doping this year — and now the pack is headed into the Alps as the third and final week of a tumultuous race begins.

Riders focused more on the racing on Saturday as fallout of three scandals over drug use ebbed. Three-time world champion Oscar Freire of Spain won a hot and sun-drenched 14th stage to close in the Tour’s sprint title, while Cadel Evans of Australia kept the overall race lead for a fifth straight day.

Evans, who was runner-up last year, knows his clutch on the race leader’s yellow jersey is about to come under attack — notably from Team CSC, which has two strong climbers who are within one-and-a-half minutes of him.

“Tomorrow the challenges to my yellow jersey will begin,” said Evans, adding that his Silence Lotto team has tried to save the energy of riders who could escort him up the Alpine climbs. “I have to play a smart race.”

“We don’t have the strongest team for the mountains, we are well aware of that — and I’m sure my competitors are as well,” Evans said.

Spain’s Oscar Freire celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the 14th stage of the Tour de France between Nimes and Digne-les-Bains, France, on Saturday. PHOTO: AP

Freire, a three-time world champion, won a mass sprint at the end of the 194.5km trek from Nimes to Digne-les-Bains and moved in on clinching the green jersey given to the Tour’s best sprinter.

The 32-year-old Rabobank rider collected his fourth Tour stage victory and his first this year with a time of 4 hours, 13 minutes, 8 seconds. Freire’s hold on the green jersey had come under pressure from Mark Cavendish, who won the last two stages in sprints. But the British rider fell behind in the final climb up the low-grade L’Orme pass and he missed out on the final dash.

Bjarne Riis, the CSC team manager, said his team is going to “show some fireworks” in the Alps. His contenders include Frank Schleck of Luxembourg, who trails Evans by a second, and Spain’s Carlos Sastre, who is 1 minute, 28 seconds back.

“Obviously, the strategy is to try and isolate Evans,” said Riis, the 1996 Tour winner who stayed home from the race last year just weeks after his admission that he had used EPO on way to his victory. “If we want to win this Tour de France we have to attack on these three hard stages in the Alps.”

The other riders to watch are Bernhard Kohl of Germany, a strong climber who is 46 seconds behind Evans in fourth, and Russia’s Denis Menchov, who is 57 seconds back in sixth.

“I think Menchov is the best candidate in this Tour,” said Freire of his Rabobank teammate. “It’s really in this last phase of the Tour that the race is going to be determined.”

The Alpine stages start hard and get progressively tougher.

The 183km ride from Embrun, France, to Prato Nevoso, Italy features the Agnel pass, a climb so hard it defies categorization in cycling’s ranking system and an uphill finish.

After a rest day today, riders face two “beyond category” climbs tomorrow. Then, it’s the grandaddy of this year’s race — Wednesday’s wicked 210.5km ride along three “hors categorie” ascents, up the Galibier and Croix de Fer passes and a finish on the famed Alpe d’Huez.

For those still in contention after that, the last big test will come in a time trial in the next-to-last stage before next Sunday’s finish in Paris.

One lingering question mark is whether the Tour will be doping free between now and then. These days, virtually no competitor is entirely above suspicion.

Three riders this year tested positive for EPO, a banned blood booster, leading to their ouster and threatening to consign this year’s 95th edition to the annals of doping-marred Tours — just like drug use and cheats marred the event in 2006 and last year.

The scandals involving Spanish riders Manuel Beltran and Moises Duenas Nevado and young Italian star Riccardo Ricco — the winner of two stages this year — have not been good for its brand image.



■ CAVENDISH PULLS OUT

AFP, EMBRUN, FRANCE

Quadruple stage winner Mark Cavendish has pulled out of the Tour de France prior to the 15th stage, the first of three days in the Alps, his Columbia team said.

Cavendish has been one of the stars of the Tour so far, winning four bunch sprints to set a new British record for stage wins in a single edition.

The 23-year-old from the Isle of Man is said to be suffering fatigue following two tough weeks of racing.

Cavendish missed out on disputing a bunch sprint for the first time in the race when he was dropped on the small climb 10km from the finish line of Saturday’s 14th stage, won by sprint rival Oscar Freire.

Cavendish is now likely to set his sights on the Olympic Games, where he will compete for Britain in track cycling’s Madison — an event in which he is reigning world champion with Bradley Wiggins.
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